Okay, my apologies for how long it’s been since my last blog entry (like two and a half months)!1 There is a lot to tell–a lot has happened–but because it’s been cold I get rather depressed and unmotivated and so just didn’t feel like writing. But, I have the urge again, so I’ll try to do a brief recap and do a better job of keeping things up-to-date moving forward.
Or not. đ
As we last left off, I had just arrived at Northwest Creek Marina in New Bern, NC, ready to fly out to Ohio to visit my ailing mother. I had given myself a few days to relax and prep the boat, but as always, this was not to be because I almost immediately discovered a major issue with the engine: a drip coming out of the raw water pump.
So, the way most marine diesel engines are cooled is by sucking in raw sea-water using an engine-driven pump. That relatively cool water is sent to a type of radiator called a heat exchanger. One one side is the cooler, raw water, and on the other side is freshwater/radiator fluid which is what actually circulates around inside the engine (because using the raw, salty water for that would quickly cause engine corrosion). After the raw water absorbs the heat from the freshwater side, it is mixed with the engine exhaust and pumped out the exhaust pipe. (This is why most boat exhausts are always sputtering water.) Not only is this a convenient way to get rid of the hot raw water, but it also cools down the engine exhaust significantly, allowing rubber hoses to be used instead of metal pipes.
Anyway, when preflighting the engine, I noticed a steady drip coming from the raw water pump. In fact, so much water had dripped before I noticed it that it had filled up the oil catch pan under the engine (designed to catch engine lubricants before they go down into the bilge), overflowed it, and caused about a half quart of oil which had been accumulating in it to overflow down into the bilge along with a bunch of saltwater. Not good!
But the biggest issue was the pump itself. Internet research soon revealed that these pumps are designed with “weep holes” to indicate that the bearings or seals inside it are going bad. If they are, water starts coming out of the holes, which is what mine was doing. This is a sign to stop running the engine immediately and replace or rebuild the pump, because if it continues to fail, the inside of the engine could be contaminated (and perhaps irreparably damaged) by saltwater intrusion. This is because the pump is driven off a gear on the engine’s crankshaft, and there is just a small seal separating the oil in the engine’s crankshaft from the saltwater circulating through the pump. Great!
Some more research revealed that a replacement pump would cost $900, but a rebuild kit would be only $200. But, I had no idea how to rebuild a pump, or what that even really meant. All I could see was a cylindrical, 44-year-old hunk of metal sticking out from the engine that was supposed to move saltwater around.
I would feel much more comfortable with a new pump, but with the expenses associated with the unplanned trip to visit my mother (air fare, marina fees, etc.), I really needed to save as much money as possible, so after even more Internet research which described how to pound out bearings and seals with a hammer, and put new ones from a rebuild kit the same way, I decided to chance it. It helped that my son, Nicholay, reassured me that it was pretty simple. So, before leaving for Ohio, I ordered a rebuild kit.
The trip went very well, not only seeing my mother, but also my sister and brother-in-law and their family.
I arrived on Halloween with just enough time to do trick-or-treating with the young ones, which was very fun. I hadn’t done that in a very long time.
After a few days in Ohio, I was back in New Bern, now even more tired than before I left. The traveling had taken some out of me, but also all the wonderful interactions. (I’m an introvert and interacting with people tires me out, even if I really enjoy it.) I realized I really needed more than my original two weeks at the marina. I would only have four or so days when I got back, and I still had the raw water pump to deal with, my dinghy motor to try to fix, and perhaps most importantly, I really wanted to try to get back in shape. I had sampled the physical fitness facility next to the marina a few times before I had left for Ohio, and really liked it. I decided to ask for an additional two weeks, and the dock master was gracious enough to give them to me.
Using a YouTube video, a web site, and my own common sense, I was able to successfully rebuild the raw water pump and get the engine back running again. (I was more astonished than anyone!) lol
The dinghy motor, however, was a different story. I was pretty sure that I had gotten water in the fuel while up in Norfolk and hadn’t attempted to run it since. I had already purged the effected fuel from my Jerry cans (when at Great Bridge Bridge), and thought I now needed to purge any water-polluted fuel in the engine itself. That meant, first of all, draining the carburetor.
This was done by removing a small drain screw at the bottom of the carb. I didn’t have any place to mount my engine other than it bracket on the stern railing, and so started work there, leaning over the taffrail, removing the engine cover, founding the drain screw and an appropriate screw driver, and removing the screw. But no water came out. In fact, nothing came out, not even any fuel! Strange. Well, it had been a few weeks since I had run the engine…perhaps it had all evaporated. As I was attempting to reinstall the drain screw, it popped out of my hand and kerplunked right into the water. I just sat there dumbfounded. It was a pretty unique screw, and brass, so I knew I didn’t have a replacement. I had just rendered my engine inoperable, even if it hadn’t been before!
I got online to find a replacement drain screw, but could find no place that could deliver one any sooner than a week! That was bad, because if, after waiting on the screw and reinstalling a new one I couldn’t get the engine started, it would likely be too late at that point to try to find a mechanic to troubleshoot further. So, I decided to seek out a mechanic immediately. With luck I could find a local one with available slots for me, who also had an appropriate drain screw in stock. (I did go ahead and order a drain screw online to have as a spare.)
Long story short, I did find a place, got my friend Greg (who had a pickup truck) to help me drop off the engine, and a week later I had the engine back running fine. It turned out to not have been water in the fuel, but a misaligned float valve in the carburetor. Repair cost: $150. In the meantime, still thinking water in the fuel had been the issue, and not wanting to have to go through all this again, I decided to purchase and install a fuel filter/water separator for the dinghy. I had run into a number of cruisers who had done that and seemed very satisfied. So, online I found a Racor filter very similar to what is on the main engine and mounted it to the dinghy’s transom. It filters the fuel for contaminants and water between the tank and the engine. Even though water wasn’t the culprit this time, I now have a warm fuzzy that water contamination won’t be an issue moving forward.
Greg had been very helpful taking me and the engine to and from the repair shot, so I took him on a test ride on the dinghy a few miles up a local creek on a very lovely afternoon. The motor performed flawlessly, so I was very happy to have my “station wagon” (dinghy) back functional again. I hoisted it onto the foredeck shortly thereafter, thoroughly cleaned its hull, and secured it for the voyage south in case I would venture offshore.
Despite a few nights into the upper 40’s (when I was very glad to have my space heater), unbeknownst to me the weather had been unseasonably warm with more than a few days into the mid-70’s. It lured me into thinking that I didn’t need to be in a hurry south. In fact, I might have even stayed longer had the marina not needed my slip. Northwest Creek Marina was a very friendly, pretty, and comfortable place and I really liked how I could hit the spa two or even three times a day to do my exercises and yoga regardless of the weather.
But, as the end of November approached, it was time to continue south. It was actually long past time to be heading south, as I was soon to discover as the unseasonably warm stuff ended and the temperatures dropped significantly.
- I’m writing this the first week of January, 2025. âŠī¸